Joining Needle Tatted Rings

Preparation for learning to join a needle tatted a ring:
If you are just beginning to needle tat, please review the article, "Needle Tatted Double Stitch."
"http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art1740.asp
On that page you will find photos 1 - 4 demonstrating the technique of wrapping the double stitch.
Follow that by viewing photos 5 - 9, "Needle Tatting Practicing the Double Stitch." http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art10745.asp

1. As you make lace the newly tatted elements are attached to the previously tatting. For this practice, make a regular pratice ring with picots using a cut piece of thread.
Pattern: Ring 3 ds picot 3 ds picot 3 ds picot 3 ds close ring.

2. After wrapping all the ds, slide the ds over the eye of the needle and close into a true ring.

3. Look carefully at the ring. The front side is facing you. Note that there are bars across the legs of the picot. The bars indicate the front of the work.

4. Examine the back side of that ring. There are no bars across the legs of the pico; this indicates the back side of the work.

5. Now let's join one tatted element to a previously tatted one. The easiest method is to simply slide the needle through a picot and continue to wrap ds.

6. A neater method of joining is to place the wrapping thread UNDER a picot and use the point of the needle to draw UP a loop and slide it onto the needle.
Pull down on the wrapping thread to remove the slack and continue to wrap ds. Look at the legs of the picot used for the join. There are bars on the original picot but not on those on the new ring. This UP join is the traditional method of joining.

7. However, today there is an alternative method which enhances the look of the finished tatting. Place the wrapping thread on TOP of the picot and use the point of the needle to pull DOWN a loop of thread. Slide the loop over the needle and pull on the wrapping thread to remove the slack and continue to wrap ds

8. Look at the picot's legs again. Now you will see bars across the legs of the picot on both rings. This is called the DOWN join

Once you decide which type of join you want to use, continue to use the same join throughout the project. Happy Tatting.